A smart platform for smart city mobility
As traffic congestion in urban areas across the world worsens and impacts on the environment, productivity, people’s well-being and quality of life, Slovak-based advanced navigation app developer Sygic launches a smart mobility platform for cities.
In Europe, urban traffic congestion costs almost 1% of the EU’s annual GDP and accounts for 40% of all CO2 emissions.
Clearly the situation is untenable, which is why cities across Europe are turning to advanced traffic management as a way of controlling congestion.
Smart traffic light systems
Cambridge is a typical small city in the UK that has set up an initiative called Smarter Cambridge Transport. A smart traffic-light system that will control signals and sensors to regulate the flow of traffic through the city is being trialled.
The system relies in software called SCOOT, which is currently used in hundreds of cities throughout Europe to coordinate traffic signals and give priority to buses.
Smart traffic-light management is one thing for controlling congestion but it doesn’t actually get cars off the road. What’s required is a mobility platform and Sygic believes it has come up with the solution.
Intelligent traffic management
Drawing on its experience of developing an advanced navigation app, Sygic’s platform offers local authorities tools to analyse, develop and implement an intelligent traffic management system comprised of high-performance backend services and mobile applications for commuters.
Using the app, local authorities can roll out central navigation and traffic management apps that monitor and optimise commuters’ use of public and personal transport - from cars to bicycles and public transport services.
The platform also enables the development of traditional mobility apps for commuters, helping them reach destinations via the fastest and lest congested routes. The system collects data from Sygic users and leverages cloud supercomputing to provide real-time predictions of traffic levels, commuter behaviour and forecast scenarios (should certain infrastructure be closed or altered in any way).
Sygic’s platform is a beacon of hope for the smart city of the future but it’s only a start.
